I think that's right, Hank. Or less snarky, anyway. But it certainly is the temper of the times. I think it's because we are under ceaseless pressure to buy stuff, and ideas too, that we don't want or that we find ridiculous. I get so tired of the nonsense that I go into snark mode just to get some amusement out of all the awfulness.

This "portrait" of Obama is reminiscent of Mormon art. Since he comes from Utah, he is surrounded by that stuff. The picture is propaganda and very subordinate to the message. The message is decidedly one-dimesional and easily discerned immediately. It is is conventionally rendered without much pizzazz or panache.

As a painter of sorts , I don't make many claims for myself except that I hear from others such comments as "you must be happy," "you've got something, but I don't know what it is," or "you're a neo-primitive." I take it all with a grain of salt. But I can easily tell when a painting can be comprehended at a glance.

In a way, it is a trap to be "able to draw," as Thomas Kincade said about himself. People who resist taking an art class will often say that they can't draw. But if they give art a try, they sometimes discover hidden rewards, the way I did.

I don't feel too bad making fun of someone who is fantastically wealthy from the thing I am making fun of. I feel like I have bought a ticket to make fun, even if I never purchased any of his products. Oh wait, I bought one of his calendars for my SIL, who likes his work.

I doubt any of us would make fun of some poor, local artist who makes schlock...ok, I take that back. lol

Many artists do 'commercial' work to pay the bills and allow them to create the quality work they really want to do. I have the impression he may never have moved beyond an initial concept he found commercially successful. Several years ago I heard an acquaintance describing the paintings in highly admiringly words as I thought 'to each his own'. Meanwhile, guess he was busy making many trips to his bank.